Saturday, October 06, 2012

"And they began sewing chaos!"

SANTIAGO — On October 5, 1988, after a 16 years military dictatorship, a national referendum was held to determine whether or not General Augusto Pinochet would extend his rule for another eight-year term in office. The “No” side won with just under 56 percent of the vote, and Pinochet stepped down. To celebrate the anniversary of the return to democracy, a number of left-wing government ministers organized a memorial rally at Plaza Rosales earlier today.Unfortunately, the commemoration quickly ended, turning into another violent student action. Students from the Internado Nacional Barros Arana (INBA) infiltrated the rally and began sewing chaos, taking out their aggression on representatives of the Communist Party (PC), the Democracia Cristiana (DC), the PPD, and the Socialist Party (PS). The students were struggling against politics in general and against a perceived lack of changes since the end of the dictatorship. The representatives immediately left the place, no one was injured.Despite the incident, left-wing representatives maintained their desire for unity and better democracy for the next municipal and presidential elections. (my emphasis)
Those who sew chaos will end up wearing ripped shirts! Or I think that's how it goes. "Struggling against politics in general"? Excellent. Nos miramos, nos gustamos, y nos besamos!

If you want to understand Chilean protest groups, you'll need to (re)watch this from Life of Brian... (with Spanish subtitles, just in case) (UPDATE: As Otto points out in comments, that would PORTUGUESE subtitles to anyone except an idiot....mea culpa!)

The agreement that all will fight authorities for the symbolic, but admittedly non-existent, right of men to have babies captures perfectly the sensibilities of the Chilean student left. And then the "splitters" thing. Nice.